The Indieverse: A Christmas Special
by hitthepin
Summary: 'Tis the time of year for good tidings and cheer! Join Freddy, Bendy, Sans, and the rest of the Indieverse gang as they all share some mugs of hot cocoa and entertaining stories during the twelve days of Christmas and celebrate the holidays right along with you.
1. Chapter 1: Freddy's Story

**AN: Hello to all you wonderful people out there. Hope you're all having happy holidays. My name is HTP, and thanks for popping in and reading this fanfiction. **

**A few words before we begin. First of all, all these events take place within an alternate timeline. None of these events take place within the main continuity that currently consists of the three installments The Indieverse, Sans and Monika, and The Indieverse: The Hands of Time. Two different universes. **

**This is just a short, entertaining story about stories. Joy, festivities, and a break from killing and saving the entire multiverse from certain destruction. **

**Without further ado, enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 1: Freddy's Story

The atmosphere of Freddy Fazbear's pizza was positively festive. Christmas decorations hung all over the walls, a Christmas tree that stretched up to the (very short) ceiling stood glittering, and all nine of the attendee's all wore Santa hats and as much Christmas clothing as they could muster.

"It's the time of year for Christmas cheer, and Santa's on his way!" Freddy belted at the top of his lungs into his microphone. "With his eight reindeer-"

"Would ya pipe down already!" shouted the Neighbor good-naturedly. "You've been carolling that damn song for hours!"

Monika rung a bell, and everybody gathered around the center table in the dining room.

"Alright, everyone. Let's review what we're all doing here." she said in her best club-president voice.

"So, we're doing this whole twelve-days of Christmas thing," Mama began.

"And each of us is going to share a story on each of the days!" Cuphead said excitedly.

"Hold up." Bendy interjected. "There's ten of us here. That means ten stories. How is that going to fill twelve days?"

"Well, we're going to celebrate Christmas on the twelfth day," Monika said. "That much we've already reviewed."

"That still leaves one day," said Baldi, absentmindedly twirling his ruler in his hand.

"That's Sans' department. Sans?" Monika asked, pointing an arm at the skeleton.

"Oh. Yeah." he said lazily, kicking back in the cheap plastic chair. "I'm calling in a favor. He'll show up on Day 11. Don't worry."

"What about the Player?" Tim asked.

"He already told me he can't come," Sans said. "Doing his own thing for the holidays."

"So, anyways. Today's December 1. Day 1. Who would like to begin?" Monika said.

Freddy stood up, his microphone in hand. "Me. Of course."

Monika sat down, and Freddy opened his mouth and began to speak.

* * *

"For those of you who know me well," At this first sentence, he nodded to Mr. Peterson and Bendy, who nodded right back. "I don't have a whole lot of stories. Most of the time, I do the same thing every day: stand on a stage and sing songs with children. Most of the stories that I have, I've experienced it with the entities in front of me now."

"But there is one." Freddy began to fall into a rhythm, his voice taking an intonance. "I have a memory. I don't know if it's real or not. I don't even know if it belongs to me. But it still exists, and so I'll tell it to you."

"I'm really, really short. And human. And I'm in this place. My pizzeria."

"I was running, weaving in between the legs of taller people. Adults. They were just obstacles that I needed to get past. And I was running away from something."

The animatronic's audience of nine began to lean forward in their seats, enraptured with the story.

"And I knew that if the thing that was behind me caught me, terrible things would happen. I absolutely had to run away from it, faster and faster and faster."

"But I wasn't fast enough. I could hear it gaining on me, inexorably getting closer. There was nowhere I could run, nowhere I could hide."

"And just as I suspected, the person - the _thing _chasing after me caught up to me. It grabbed me by the shirt and spun me around."

By now, everyone in the room was rapt with attention, desperate to know how the story ended.

"And I heard the voice of the person who had caught me. It was a high, clear sound. And do you know what it said?"

"It said… 'Tag! You're it!'"

Everyone looked really deflated.

"Yep. It was just my friend, and we were just playing a game of tag." Freddy said.

"Well, what the hell kinda story is that?" the Neighbor complained.

"I'll admit, it's not much," Freddy admitted. "But it's the one good memory that I have. Every single other memory is of darkness and sadness and pain. Of fighting, fighting to stay here, because my time isn't up yet. And this is a happy time, is it not? Now, I've shared with you the only happy memory I have. Would you mind giving it a little bit of respect?"

At the end of Freddy's short tirade, the Neighbor seemed to have wilted a little bit.

"Well. That was something! That's Day 1, people." Monika said, wrapping up the session. "Go to the Neighbor's house on Day 2, December 4. Good meeting, everyone!"

At these words, various doors began to appear on the walls, and each character walked through each door that belonged to them, the pathway disappearing in a flash of light each time they did so, until finally, it was just Freddy and Monika, and one out-of-place door left.

"Hey. Thanks for going first, Freddy," Monika said gently.

Freddy seemed to sigh. "I'm a leader, right?" He seemed to be asking himself the question. "That's just what leaders do. Lead."

"Well, leaders aren't perfect. They're people. You're doing the best you can," Monika said encouragingly.

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right." Freddy said, his voice gaining a bit of confidence.

A silent moment passed between the duo.

"You should be getting back," Freddy said, breaking the silence.

"Yes, I should." Monika replied.

And without a word, she turned and walked through her door, leaving.


	2. Chapter 2: The Neighbor's Story

Chapter 2: Mr. Peterson's Story

For those uneducated in the indie games, Hello, Neighbor does actually have a Christmas mod. And so the Player took the time out of his schedule to change the game, making it delightfully festive and snowy everywhere for the enjoyment of all.

That was the setting for the indie game characters on the second day of Christmas when the out-of-place doors all brought them to different locations in the Neighbor's house.

Baldi stepped out of his door, only to find that his feet were kicking over open air, and then he was falling, and then he hit the ground.

"What kind of person builds their house like this?" the teacher questioned before walking around to the front of the giant structure, where everyone else had already gathered.

"Alright, alright, alright, that's enough," Monika said, and the sound of her authoritative voice instantly quieted the other discussions taking place.

"Now that we're all here, it's time for another story. Mr. Peterson?" Monika asked, looking to the burly man.

He looked surprised. "What? Why do I have to do it? Why can't somebody else do it?"

"Because we all came to your dang house to do it," Baldi complained.

Mr. Peterson sighed, and resigned to his fate, he opened his mouth and began to tell his story.

* * *

"Parenting is hard. Everyone knows that. But you don't really _know _exactly how difficult it is until you've tried it," the Neighbor began.

Everyone listened, wide-eyed and rapt with attention.

"And I tried to be the best parent I could be. I really did. I made a million mistakes, and I learned from each and every single one of them."

"The biggest mistake that I made was probably that one day that we went to an amusement park."

"You see, I'm a big stickler on reward and punishment. You're rewarded when you do good. You're punished when you do bad. And yet for some reason, my wife -" The Neighbor's voice seemed to wobble for the slightest moment when he said this. "Got it in her head that it'd be a good idea to give the children some fun after they had absolutely been misbehaving."

"I don't even remember the name of the godforsaken place that we went to. Something ridiculous. It's not even important, anyway."

"The ride there was absolutely terrible. Three hours of just staring at a road, with no end in sight, the two of them screaming their heads off in the backseat while their mother tried to placate them. And to no avail. By the time we finally pulled into the parking lot of the place, it felt like my head was going to split into two."

"And then we got there, and things got even worse. Every time we passed a stand selling something, the children absolutely _had _to have it. If they didn't get, they'd start screaming bloody murder. If the line was too long, they'd start screaming. If even the slightest thing went wrong, they started screaming."

"The worst part of the whole thing was during this one new feature that we thought was going to be a ride. There was a huge line for it that we waited in for an hour and a half. That wasn't a pleasant experience for anyone involved."

"Once we went in, we discovered that it wasn't actually a ride. There were rows of seats facing a screen. It was just an interactive movie of sorts, for some big pop culture thing that I wasn't up-to-date on."

"My son seemed to take this surprisingly well. He didn't complain. My daughter, on the other hand… well, she was a mess. She started screaming and crying hysterically, causing quite the scene. There were heads turned in our direction on that day, believe me."

"And there was more hell to pay after that. More terrible rides and rigged games and terrible, terrible food. The food was absolutely disgusting. Never eat that food. Ever."

"But you know what? At the end of the day, my two children smiled at me and thanked me for taking them. For being a good dad."

Mr. Peterson, the man who showed no emotion, was choking up.

"And at the end of the day, as I drove home in a much more subdued car, that was enough. That was enough for me."

Silence.

Then, through the silence, Freddy began to applaud, his heavy hands making a clunking sound.

He was quickly joined by Bendy, the wet slapping of his appendages joining in with the clunking sound, and soon enough, everyone was applauding.

"T...thanks, guys," the Neighbor managed to get out before sitting down hard.

"And that concludes today's story, I believe," Monika said after the cheering died down. "We'll reconvene at Bendy and the Ink Machine on the third day of Christmas. December 7th. Sounds good?"

Everyone nodded.

"Alright then. The doors that brought you here are still there. They'll bring you back. Good meeting, everyone!"

As everyone wandered back into the Neighbor's house, Baldi lamented his existence and questioned how he would get to that door, floating a dozen feet in the air.


	3. Chapter 3: Bendy's Story

Chapter 3: Bendy's story

Joey Drew Studios is not a pleasant place. Dark, dank, dirty, and decidedly unfriendly to even those who called it their home universe. You would never expect it to be a place of joy, festivities, and convention.

And yet that was exactly what it had become. Festive lights twinkled, several Christmas trees filled the room with the ink machine, and the whole gang sat cross-legged, laughing and talking and cheering with delight and merriment. Cocao had been passed out to those capable of drinking it, and mugs of it were spread around.

"Give me one. I'm capable of drinking fluids," Sans complained, lazily reaching for a mug.

Monika pulled it out of reach. "No. I'm not going to have you making a mess in this place."

"Ok then," Sans said, wandering away to go examine the ink machine, now with several Christmas wreaths hanging off it.

"Alright. Welcome back, everyone. Bendy, would you like to tell your story now?" Monika asked, looking at the ink demon in question.

"Sans isn't here," Bendy pointed out.

"Yes, I am," Sans responded, standing directly behind him.

"Oh. Well in that case, yes. Ahem."

And so, Bendy began to speak and tell his story.

* * *

"My life has been a lot like Freddy's," he began, nodding at the bear in question. "Much of my time before I was a demon has been forgotten. I only remember the tiniest bits and pieces of it, vaguely, as those it was only a dream."

"In all of those splintered memories, though, there's always a constant. I'm a very important, powerful person. I control people, things. Money."

"I constantly remember the joy of that power. Of being better, and of knowing that I put myself there."

"But anyways. In one of my memories, I remember that I was throwing a party of some sort. A work event. I wasn't especially enjoying it, but circumstances I can't recall dictated that I had to do so, so I did."

"And so at that party, there was all manner of people there. Everyone was there. Everyone I knew, each of whom I had memory of then and have no memory of now."

"There was this one woman. I specifically remember this one woman who was the most aggravating person that I'd ever met. Always constantly hounding me for something. And the way I remember it, nobody else really liked her that much, either. Just once, I'd love to just tell her what I'd really thought of her."

"But of course, in business, one can't do that." At this point, Bendy's personality seemed to subtly shift, from an innocent cartoon character to something a bit more conniving and malicious. "And so I'd always say the words that I was supposed to say and smiled and laughed and drank when really, it didn't mean anything at all. None of it."

"The hour came when I was supposed to make some grand sort of speech. And so, buoyed by friends and enemies alike, I walked up in front of the podium and spoke out to the small crowd of my subordinates."

"I can't tell you the entirety of the speech, but it went something like this:"

"Everyone! Everyone, please quiet down."

"Now, then."

"I'm so glad to be here today. The conclusion of our grand project has finally reached its completion, and it's only due to each and every single one of you. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you."

"Everyone cheered and whooped and clapped after that, even though my words were as empty as I am of a soul. After it died down, I continued."

"Magic. When I say, 'magic', the human mind recoils in disbelief. Ever since childhood, we've been taught to accept that the concept of magic is untrue, impossible, and that those who believe in it are insane, or simply delusional."

"Well, not anymore. For today I bring to you: proof of the impossible. Introducing! The wonderful-"

"At this point, my memory cuts short. I don't remember what I said. But I don't think I need to, because I specifically remember what the thing I was showing was."

"It was that very thing you see there."

Bendy used a gloved hand to point at the ink machine.

"Wow," the Neighbor said aloud, his jaw slackened, before everyone looked at him strangely and he resumed his gruff expression.

"'And now!' I shouted. 'And now, I will demonstrate the true power and magic of my machine!"

"I pulled out some sort of device out of my pocket. Flicked a few switches, tapped a few buttons, and the beautiful thing started coming to life."

"The nozzle pumped. The gears turned. The whole thing kept throbbing and throbbing and throbbing."

"And then eventually, something came out of that machine. Can anyone guess what it was?"

"You?" Tim asked innocently.

"Yes. Me." Bendy said, his flat teeth seeming to grind against each other in slight annoyance.

"And that's where the memory ends."

Everyone was silent for a moment.

"How's is THAT a happy story?" Baldi questioned.

Bendy turned on the teacher with a bit of vengeance in his eyes.

"I had spent _years _perfectly that damn thing," he began, spitting his liquid everywhere. "The sacrifice, the effort, the work, all of it. And _magic_. It was real. I don't know about you, dear professor, but learning that _magic _was real was a pretty notable thing. What about you?"

Baldi shrunk back a little bit under the demon's fury. "Alright, alright."

"Well, with that," Monika said, wisely deciding to break things up, "That concludes our meeting for today! Meet you all at Mama's home on the fourth day, December 9th."

The doors flashed everywhere, and each went back to their own game.

* * *

"You alright, Bendy?" Monika asked after everyone else had left.

"Yes," Bendy muttered.

"You don't seem quite like yourself," Monika said gently.

Bendy turned, and there was this terrifying look in his eyes that Monika had never seen before, even when they were both trying to kill each other.

"Oh. DO I?!" he nearly screamed, starting to sprout into his ink form.

Monika stood there, unimpressed. "Yes. You do."

Bendy seemed to realize what he was doing, and in an instant, he shrunk back down into his cartoon form.

"I'm sorry about that. I don't know what came over me," he said apologetically.

"It's all right. The holidays aren't all fun and joy. They put a bit of extra strain on everyone," Monika said a bit distantly.

"Is that what you're feeling?" Bendy asked.

"What? No, no." Monika stammered hastily. "This is all a great experience for me."

A measure of silence.

"You should be going," Bendy said.

"I should," Monika replied.

And go she did.


	4. Chapter 4: Mama's Story

Chapter 4: Mama's Story

Tattletail was a game that took place right around Christmas-time, and so for the fortunance of the decorator, everything was already quite festive, in a horror sense. The Christmas tree twinkled and the baby Tattletails scattered about the house softly babbled, casting a remarkably relaxing and calm atmosphere over the whole area.

Unlike during the last meeting, there was indeed seating available to the team. The indie game characters all lounged about on the couch and chairs, talking and laughing with one another, as though it was a completely normal social gathering between normal, real people.

"Alright. Is that Cuphead? Alright. Everyone's here, so we may as well begin," Monika said, once again stepping back into her role as the organizer.

Everyone shut their mouths and swiveled to the president.

"Now, we can skip the pleasantries. We all know what we came here for," Monika said, looking over at Mama.

She didn't look surprised.

"Alright, everyone," she said in her calm, robotic voice. "Please be quiet, and I'll tell you the story of Waygetter Electronics."

That was an attention-getter, as evidenced by everyone leaning forward to better hear the words of the Furby toy.

* * *

"My creator was a… strange man, for lack of a better word," Mama began.

"You can say that again," Tim muttered.

"You've met him?" Mama asked.

"Yes. He's not especially fond of me," Tim promptly responded.

"Moving on," Mama said, moving on, "My creator was incredibly eccentric. He'd always speak to us toys, as though we were actual living, thinking beings. I don't know if he actually believed that we were actual living, thinking beings, or if he knew that we were actual living, thinking beings, but the fact stands that he treated us as such."

"And not only that - in the middle of his conversations, he'd pause and look at us expectantly, as though he thought that we would respond to his words like a normal person."

"Even during my time in a lower state of awareness, I was aware that this was not normal behavior among human beings. And so whenever he talked, I did my utmost best to listen to what he was saying, however strange and incomprehensible it might be."

"There was this one special time, the very last time that he ever spoke to us. He gathered every last toy in the room with him. Every scrapped prototype that he never threw away, every finished completion that should have already been on the shelves, he brought them all into the one room that was his office and began to speak to us. This is what he spoke."

"'Everyone,' he began. 'It's been such a journey, doing this with you all. I can't tell you how grateful I am."

"He started getting a little bit choked up. Of course, absolutely none of us replied to him."

"He continued: 'I put so much effort into all of you. And you, in turn, have returned that effort tenfold. I would be nobody without each and every single one of you. And for that effort and that fortitude, I thank you.'"

"Still, we just looked at him. Not blinking, not speaking. Even the tiny ones that were supposed to be talking were dead silent."

"And he concluded with saying, 'We're all doing something incredible. The definition of power itself is within each and every single one of you now. Do your best with it.'"

"Dead silence after that."

"He left, and we would still see him afterwards, but he would never talk to us again. He didn't act like anything was strange at all. He simply acting like a normal person who didn't talk to toys as though they were normal human beings."

"And it was sad. I'll admit it. I never knew how much it meant to me, our lovable eccentric creator treating us as equals. I guess you only realize how much something meant to you once its not there anymore."

"Time passed, and nothing remarkable after that happened. Eventually, I was the first and the only version of me that was shipped off to someone's house. And, as they say, the rest is history."

"I never learned what happened to our creator. I only hope he's still around, still innovating, still trying to bring joy to everyone else."

"He was a good man."

Dead silence.

"Well, that was certainly interesting," Sans said.

"I guess we'll never know what happened to him," Cuphead remarked.

"Haha," Tim muttered under his breath.

"Thank you very much for your story, Mama," Monika said. "And with that, I believe that this concludes the fourth day of Christmas. Do come back for Day 5, on December 11th!"

And with the conclusion of her cheerful words, everyone wandered away in their own direction, where those mysterious passageways that would take them back to their own worlds would inevitably appear.

* * *

Once everyone except Mama and Monika was gone, the toy turned to face the club president.

"What do you think happened to him?" Mama asked, a tad bit of worry creeping into her voice.

"I'm sure he's fine. The multiverse isn't that big a place when, when you get down to it," Monika said. "One of these days, we'll look. We'll find him."

"One day…" Mama murmured.

And with those parting words, Monika turned tail and left.

* * *

**I honestly have no idea what I'm doing with this. Anybody have a map? Please leave a review telling me what you thought about it, and what you'd like to see next time. **

**Hope you're having happy holidays, and until next time, True Readers!**


	5. Chapter 5: Baldi's Story

Chapter 5: Baldi's Story

The Neighbor walked through the out-of-place door in his house and popped out the other side with a big broom in his face.

"GOTTA SWEEP SWEEP SWEEP!" yelled the broom.

The Neighbor cursed and swore under his breath, roughly shoved the infernal thing out of the way and stumbled out of the cramped closet and into the grainy hallway.

A few twists and turns of the schoolhouse later, and the Neighbor pushed through the door into the detention room, where seats had been brought out and Christmas decorations put up everywhere.

"Bendy. Cuphead. Stop doing that," Monika said a little impatiently, noticing the two drawing an ink mustache over Playtime's picture.

The two cartoons both pouted simultaneously.

"Alright, Mom," Cuphead groaned, before sulking back to his seat and sucking liquid from his straw.

Bendy didn't deign to respond.

"Alright. Neighbor? You're here," Monika noted, checking off his box in the file directory. "And now that everyone's here, we can begin!"

"Baldi, do you have a story prepared for us?"

"I do indeed!" the professor said, getting up and walking to the front of the room while everyone watched him.

"Then take it away," Monika said, and so he did.

* * *

"Everyone here is fairly well aware of how much of a disciplinarian I am," Baldi began, eliciting a few chuckles from his audience. "But I wasn't always like this."

Such a gigantic twist right at the beginning of the story put the audience on the edge of their seats, leaning forward in excitement.

"Back when I was in college, getting my degree, I was a completely different person. Happy. Cheerful. The smile on my face was genuine." At this, the smile on Baldi's face seemed to flatten the smallest amount. "Times were good back then."

"And during my time during higher education, I met this woman. She was quite a gal."

Bendy snickered under his breath.

"I'm sorry, did you say something?" Baldi said, a hostile tone creeping into his voice.

Still grinning (when was he not grinning?), Bendy shook his head from side to side, holding in his mirth.

Heedlessly, Baldi continued onward. "Never met any quite like her. Interesting. Outgoing. Likeable. She basically became my little sister during the time we spent."

"Or so I thought."

"Don't tell me that she was in love with you," the Neighbor mumbled. "That'd make a really crappy story."

"Well, I guess that the story is crappy, then," Baldi said.

"Jesus Christ. What is this, a fanfiction?" Sans asked, directing a wink through the screen at you.

"Sans…" Monika warned.

"Alright, alright, alright. Carry on," Sans said, leaning back in his chair.

"I didn't like her back, as I already said. So I tried to turn her down as best as I could."

"Unfortunately, my best was nowhere near enough. She went into quite a huff after that. Split things off with me."

"I didn't see her for a very long time after that. I got a degree in Theoretical Physics, actually, and spent a whole lot of time bouncing around from school to school, from place to place, never really belonging anywhere. I saw the bureaucracy, the incompetence, the idiocy. I saw what was wrong in the school system. It drove me half mad, I tell you, watching so much talent go to waste in the clumsy hands of administrators who didn't know what they were doing."

"There was quite a bit of time where I had gone completely mad. Started my own schoolhouse, thinking that I was doing the right thing. Told myself that I would have my own system, do things my own way. The correct way."

"Of course, the way that I was doing things was not even close to the correct way at all, as most of you here know from personal experience," Baldi said, his grin returning, and several matching grins appeared on the faces of the listeners.

"Let me tell you, going crazy doesn't just happen in a blink. A whole lot of things have to happen to drive a person off the deep end."

Mr. Peterson, Sans, and Tim all nodded in agreement.

"There was always a shadow. That's the only way that I can describe it. I'd always see it everywhere. And whenever I saw it, the tiniest inconveniences would always pop up. Misplaced pieces of paper, slightly odd-tasting coffee, untied shoelaces. And boy howdy, would that just drive me off my rocker."

"I never admitted it to myself. I pretended like that shadow doesn't exist. Convinced myself that it was a figment of my imagination. It couldn't possibly be real."

"But it was. She was real. _It _was real."

"And you know what the lesson from my story is, class? It's that we can't ignore the shadows in our lives. No matter how insignificant they might seem to be, we can't allow them to persist. We have to shine our light on them, and remove them. If we don't, we just might wake up one day find that we've gone insane."

"That's all for today. Class dismissed."

Light applause, some cheering and whooping from Bendy and Cuphead, and then each member began to happily walk back to their homes.

"Come back for the sixth day! December 14!" Monika called out to the group of receding backs.

She left, and it was just the Neighbor and Baldi left.

* * *

"You really hate me, eh?" the Neighbor said, a little grin the only indication that he was joking.

"Ha. I definitely didn't ask any favors to get anything to happen at all," Baldi said, a matching mischievous grin on his face.

"Y'know, you're not bad, Professor," the Neighbor admitted.

"You're alright yourself," Baldi replied humbly.

The Neighbor's grin cracked open a little more.

"See ya round," he called, turning and walking out.

And that was the fifth day.


	6. Chapter 6: Sans' Story

Chapter 6: Sans' Story

Undertale. Whichever circle of indie game enthusiasts you happen to be a part of, it's inevitable that you've heard of this game.

Much like the universe of Tattletail, the town of Snowdin seemed to be stuck permanently celebrating Christmas. Now that it _was _actually Christmas, no extra decorum was required.

Grillby's bar had been selected as the meeting place, and per Sans' request, nobody else was there except for the bartender himself. The tiny tree that stood in the corner was the only bit of decoration in the place, a testament to how lazy the skeleton could truly be.

Eventually, Cuphead walked in, the liquid in his cup frozen solid and his teeth chattering, and everyone was gathered.

Grillby walked next to the unfortunate cartoon character, and he instantly began to warm up.

"Alright. Welcome back, everyone. Glad you all came for another story," Monika said, once again shifting into her role of leadership.

"I must admit, I don't know what kind of story you might be telling us, Sans," the Neighbor asked aloud as he picked a container of fries.

Sans' grin didn't cease. "Well, I've put a little something together for ya. Hope it's up to speed."

"You're ready?" Monika said.

"Yea," Sans replied.

"Then take it away."

* * *

And so he did.

"Most of my recent life has been relatively boring. This seems like a trope that's common among us," Sans began, nodding towards Freddy, the Neighbor, Bendy, Mama, and Baldi simultaneously.

They all nodded back.

"But much like all of you, my life wasn't always like this. Once, my life was full of excitement and adventure and stories, one of which I'll tell you now."

"Now, then. Who here has heard of ︎ ︎⬧︎⧫︎ ︎❒︎?"

Monika and Tim set down their drinks and looked at Sans seriously, while everyone else simply looked bewildered.

"Sans. Are you sure that you can't tell some other sort of story?" Monika said tightly.

"Jeez. You guys dislike the guy that much? Alright, fine, fine," Sans requised.

"Last Christmas, me and a few of my friends had a gathering quite a bit like this one. Me, Paps, Undyne, Alphys. We all got invited to New Home, and celebrated Christmas with the king."

"What'd you do there?" Mama asked.

"Well…" Sans looked off to the side in embarrassment. "Papyrus and I did sing a duet."

"You sang a WHAT?" everybody chorused in astonishment.

"Yea. I'd do a recreation, but Papyrus isn't here…"

As though his very words had summoned him, Papyrus burst through the doors of Grillby's, a giant, maniacal grin plastered across his face.

"Greetings, various characters of whom I've never seen before!" he cried out in an extremely excited voice.

"Is he serious?" Freddy whisphered.

"He knows a whole lot more than he lets on," Sans replied.

"Am I to be singing a duet to this delightful cast and crew?" Papyrus asked.

"Yep,"

"But there are no microphones here! How am I to sing if this valuable commodity is not present?" Papyrus lamented.

Freddy lightly tossed one to each skeleton.

"Thanks," Sans replied. "Ahem. Let's begin."

"I… don't want a lot for Christmas!" Papyrus began.

* * *

The song concluded, and everyone applauded. Who knew that the two of them could sing so well?

"And now, I must be going! Do enjoy your Christmas festivities, everyone!" Papyrus said before dashing out of the room.

A moment of confused silence.

"While that singing was absolutely amazing, Sans," It seemed as though Monika was trying to stifle a giggle. "You still haven't yet told a complete story."

"Eh, I guess you're right," Sans said, sitting back in his chair and putting on a random Christmas hat that was lying within arms reach.

"Anyways, we mostly just chilled and drank lots of tea. Lots and lots and lots of tea. You would not _believe _the amount of tea that King Fluffybuns has with him."

"Eventually, we got quite a bit late into the night, and Undyne kinda broke down and almost confessed her love to Alphys -"

"Wait, WHAT?" Freddy asked.

"It's been, like, four years. How the heck have you not heard of this? Everyone else has heard of it," Sans said, and everyone else hurriedly nodded, despite not being aware of it.

Freddy sighed, and Sans continued on.

"Asgore kinda put a hand on her shoulder and pushed her off into a different room. There were tears, let me tell you. You'd never expect it, but there were."

"Papyrus and Alphys just cooked up a whole bunch of instant noodles and binged anime on the tiny little TV. And that just left me and the king."

"I gotta tell ya, he was quite a sight. Hat just like this one," At this, Sans pointed at it and it telekinetically floated for a moment. "Ugly sweater, the whole gig. Heh."

"And Asgore talked to me, and he said this:"

"Y'know, Sans. The monsters call me their leader. And technically, that's what I am."

"But a leader is so much more than a king. A leader is certainly much more than the crown that they wear."

"A leader is the actions they take. The decisions they make. The way the _lead_. After all, that's what leaders are supposed to do, right?"

"When I said this, I just started nodding and acting like I understood what he was saying."

"Asgore sighed, and continued."

"I wish I could join in the festivities just as much as the rest of them are. But I can't. It's just not right."

"So I replied, 'Hey, chill out. Why not take one day out of the year off and chill for a bit?'"

"And when I said that, Asgore grinned a bit, as though I had said something profound. And he replied, 'You're right. You are right.'"

"And so our royal king joined in the fun, started binging on uncooked noodles with the rest of us. And for one day out of the year, our king looked a little bit happy."

"I like to think that I'm the one who made him like that. That I brought a little bit of joy into the world."

"And yeah. That's my story."

The standard light applause filled this statement, grinning of mouths and warming of hearts spreading everywhere.

"I suppose that'll conclude today," Monika said. "Be sure to come back for Day 7, December 16, at Cuphead's place? Alright? Alright."

Everyone trickled out slowly, until it was just Monika and Sans left.

"Heh. I wonder how our mutual friend is doing," Sans wondered aloud.

"I'm sure he's watching us right now," Monika said seriously.

* * *

Gaster watched from his void, watched the universes smash into each other, watched everything.

And he grinned a little. For a little bit, everything was all right.

* * *

**For those of you who want to listen to the skeleton bros. duet, here's Man on the Internet for your pleasure: ** watch?v=oflFgOYyeoU

**Thanks for reading, and until next time, True Readers!**


	7. Chapter 7: Cuphead's Story

Chapter 7: Cuphead's Story

"And when together, they both save the day! The tyranny will die, so they hold swing and sway!"

"Jesus Christ, you're as bad as Freddy," the Neighbor complained good-naturedly.

"What can I say? I can't be who I'm not," Cuphead said, his maniacal grin never leaving his face as he jumped around.

"Alright, alright. Just because your grandpa isn't here doesn't mean you're allowed to trash his house," Monika said exasperatedly. "Do you have a story to tell us?"

"C'mon. What if I don't want to tell a story? What if I want to be different?" Cuphead replied, pouting a little.

"Well, we all came here to listen to what you have to say. If you have nothing to say, we can leave," Tim interjected.

Cuphead looked this way and that before sighing, flopping down exaggeratedly, and acquising with a childish, "Fine."

"Let's hear it," Monika said.

Cuphead cleared his throat, and then he began.

* * *

"As all of you here know, I'm a kid. Underage. Still under the care of a guardian. And as most kids do while they're not in school or paying off debts to the Devil, we play."

"So Mug and I were just hanging around outside, flying these new kites that Elder Kettle had bought for us. Just goofing around, being kids. No debts to pay, no homework to do, not a care in the world."

"Of course, my good ol' bro managed to get his kite stuck up in this ridiculously high tree. So of course, he decided that he would start climbing the tree in an effort to get his toy back."

"And of course, he fell twenty feet out of the tree and hit the cold, unforgiving ground, breaking several bones."

A beat of silence.

"Jesus Christ. That got a little morbid," Freddy commented.

"Have you even looked at yourself?" the Neighbor rebutted.

"My poor bro got stuck in his bed for weeks afterwards. It was right about to be his birthday, too. Huge bummer for everyone around."

"So I decided that it was up to me to try and fix things for him. Make him happy. Give him the birthday that he deserved. Like a good bro should, right?"

"So during the whole week leading up to his birthday, I went all across the Inkwell Isles and talked to all of the old debtors, trying to convince them that to join my bro's party. I wanted to give him the biggest party ever! Bigger than everything that he could imagine."

"But one by one, each of them said no. Each one of them had some excuse as to why they couldn't come."

"And it's not like they don't like me. They do. At least, I think they do. They just didn't seem to be too keen on my bro. I dunno why."

"But, yeah. The week came and went, 17 nos were given to me, and it was time to throw a party."

"It was just me and Elder Kettle. Bro was still stuck in bed. Huge cast on his arm. Looked absolutely miserable."

"But when we brought in this gigantic blue cake that Porkrind had helped make, boy howdy, should you have seen his face. It was the difference between night and day. It was joy."

"And in retrospect, I can kinda be happy that the debtors said no. The world keeps on going forward, faster and faster and faster. More improvements. Faster lifestyle. Bigger, greater sequels. More and more and more, right now. We leave everything we have behind us, always believing that there's something even better down the road."

"And in doing so, we leave behind so many good things. Beauty. Art. Goodness. We leave it behind for a future we enjoy for two seconds, before once again leaving it behind."

"All I'm saying is, maybe we should just stop for a moment. Look at the good things we have. Take them with us as we go forward. If we did that, we'd all be so much more happy. I'm sure of it."

"Dang. This kid's so mature," Bendy whispered into the Sans' ear.

"You'd be surprised where some wisdom comes from," the skeleton replied.

"Anyways, we had our own little party. Helped feed Mugman some of his own cake, since he kept dropping it all over himself. Heh. That cake wasn't a lie, I can tell you that."

"We played some video games. Watched some TV. Just enjoyed ourselves, like kids should."

"And at the end of the day, when the cake was eaten and the time spent, my bro gave me a hug, and told me what a good brother I was."

"And that…" Cuphead sniffled a little. "That's my story."

Wild applause.

"Man. Why can't we have more feel-good stuff like that?" Baldi asked, discreetly wiping a tear out of his eye.

"That was great, Cuphead. Thank you. Thank you very much," Monika said, composing herself.

"I believe that'll be all. I do thank you all for coming. Come back for Day 8 on December 18! Little Nightmares!"

Everyone dispersed, per their ritual, opening random closet doors that were portals into different dimensions, until it was once again the storyteller and the overseer left.

"Do you think that the story was good enough?" Cuphead asked nervously. "Do you think that I'm fitting in all right?"

Monika laughed and patted the cup, trying not to touch the liquid inside.

"I think that _they _should be more worried about fitting in with _you_. You're doing great, Cuphead."

Cuphead grinned and puffed out his chest. "Why, thank you. That does mean a lot, you know."

"Glad I could help."

And Monika turned, opened her door, stepped into the shining white void, and left.

* * *

**Credit to "Birthday Blast" by NBLE999 for some inspiration for a story for Cuphead. Whoever you are, hats off to you. You really helped me get out of my writer's block. **

**Happy holidays, and until next time, True Readers!**


	8. Chapter 8: Six's Story

Chapter 8: Six's Story

"So, uh, where exactly are we?" Freddy asked aloud.

The island that the team had somehow gathered on wasn't remarkable. Flat ground, thirsty grass, a foggy sky above.

"And how exactly does the… game… create all of these new platforms out of nowhere?" Sans added.

"Don't be silly. This was here the entire time," Tim said with an aura of superiority.

Sans' left eye seemed to flash blue for instant, but within less than a blink, it was back to normal.

"It's not as though there's this incredibly powerful force behind everything that's expanding the worlds beyond what they normally should be and as such helping things not fall apart entirely," Tim continued. "Because that would just be ridiculous."

"That's an extremely specific denial," Bendy said suspiciously.

"Well, it's the truth," Tim concluded, folding his arms.

"Let's get on track," Monika said, hurrying to avoid any further crisis. "Does anyone here know sign language?"

Mr. Peterson raised his hand awkwardly, as though he was in school, before putting it down and clearing his throat.

"I do," he said. "Haven't I already proved this before?"

"One guy among us knows sign language. Gee, how convenient for the plotline." Sans randomly said.

"If you don't stop doing that, I'm going to have to boot you out," Monika warned.

Sans put his arms up in the air in a shrug. "What'd I do?"

"You know what?" came the tart reply.

Sans seemed to sigh, his ribs expanding and deflating. "Fine."

"Anyways, Six. You may begin," Monika said.

The small girl began to wave her arms, Mr. Peterson opened his mouth to translate, and such the story began.

* * *

"I wasn't always in the Maw. Once, I was a young girl in a family," Mr. Peterson began, his deep voice booming the words out.

A few chuckles.

"What? _What _is so funny?" Mr. Peterson demanded angrily.

Freddy put a placating hand on his shoulder. "Nothing is funny. Please, continue on."

Mr. Peterson looked back to Six, then continued.

"I was part of a happy family. A father. A mother. I went to school. Had… fun."

"One time, I was at another's house. It was Christmas. A gathering. Just like this one. We sang songs around the tree."

"The time came for my turn to sing a song. So I went up to the front and began to sing."

"I thought I sang well. My voice sounded good to me."

"But they booed me. My friends. The people… I thought were my friends. They booed me."

"That wasn't a problem. I told myself that it wasn't a problem. If people didn't like my voice, I decided that I wasn't going to use my voice."

"From that day, I didn't sing. I didn't speak. I didn't talk. I didn't make a single noise at all."

"I learned sign language. I learned to get around speaking verbally. I learned how important and truly powerful that you can become once words leave."

"Just a question, how on earth are you getting such specific details from sign language?" Baldi interrupted.

"It's called filling in the blanks. Critical thinking," Mr. Peterson shot back. "Six, continue, please."

"That silence would help me when I took a trip into the Maw. Of course, silence was an absolute necessity when there's monsters waiting to kill you horribly around every corner. It saved my life."

"I know that I'm not in hell anymore."

"Hell?" Freddy asked.

"Hell, Hades, suffering, there's multiple interpretations," Mr. Peterson waved away. "Carry on."

"But even still. I know that I'll never speak again."

"And that's the story of my silence."

The aforementioned silence seemed to persist as though it had been summoned by the calling of its name, stretching on and on uncomfortably.

"Jesus Christ. That's so sad. I'm sorry, Six." Mama murmured sympathetically.

One by one, each of the other members of the group added in their condolences.

"Man. Why can't we have something happy a bit more often?" Bendy asked, wiping an ink tear away from his face.

"Because we're all antagonists, one way or another. That's why?" Sans deadpanned with brutal honesty.

"I think that's quite enough for today," Monika said. "Come back on December 20 for Day 9. My world."

The random doors appeared everywhere on the island, their floating frames signaling the end of the meeting, and once again everyone went back to their own world, leaving just Six and Monika left.

Monika crouched down and got on eye level with the small figure in the yellow raincoat.

"Six? I really appreciate your participation. You're loved here. You know that, right?"

Six began to make a few quick hand motions, making symbols with her bony fingers before pointing at Monika.

"I'm afraid that I don't understand," Monika said disappointedly. "I'm sorry."

Six stood there indecisively, then came to a decision, suddenly hugging the president, her small limbs wrapping around Monika.

Shocked for a moment, Monika quickly hugged her back.

"Thank you," Monika whisphered.

They broke the embrace. Six nodded and gestured to the last remaining door, the meaning as clear as crystal.

Monika turned and left without a word.

And that was the eighth day.

* * *

**Heya, all you guys and gals and non-binary peeps! Sorry that this chapter is slightly shorter in length than the others. Life has been so hectic, it's a wonder that this managed to get out on time at all. **

**Fortunately, Christmas break is right around the corner. Hopefully, I'll be able to output some high-quality chapters during the final stretch. **

**Thank you for stopping by, and until next time, True Readers!**


	9. Chapter 9: Monika's Story

Chapter 9: Monika's Story

With its dimmed outside lights, mugs of cocoa everywhere, and light piano music coming from somewhere, the room of the Literature Club felt quite warm, cozy, and safe.

For about two seconds.

"Gee, is it good to be back," Baldi said sarcastically, looking around the pristine classroom he found himself in.

"You're complaining? I _died _here," Tim said.

"That was your own fault," Sans said.

"Why are you all ganging up on me?" the man said, almost whining.

"Because you killed us all one hundred… seventy-five times, was it?" Freddy pointed out.

Monika rung a bell extremely loudly, and the argument dissipated.

"How I love being back home," Monika said. "Are we all ready to behave, instead of acting like immature children?"

Everyone nodded obediently.

"Now, then. It's my turn to tell a story today. Gather round, everyone."

Everyone pressed in closer, and Monika began to tell her story.

* * *

"As each and every single one of you know very well, I'm in love with a certain someone. That someone being the Player, of whom you all also know quite well. It's practically my job, to be in love with him."

"Have any of you ever been in love?" Monika suddenly asked, her green eyes flashing as she looked across the assembled group.

She studied each of them, staring intently before moving on to the next.

"Three of you." She looked at Bendy confusedly before shaking her head. "Three of you."

"You three understand me and what I'm going through. Or at least, you're one step closer."

"The whole prevailing theory going around is that I'm not _really _in love with the Player. I've been coded that way. My love is fake, a lie. I have no free will, no choice in the matter. So they say."

"But that's not true. I, like all the rest of you, am self-aware."

"On more than one level," Sans said, winking.

"No," Monika replied. "Stop it."

"Fine," Sans groaned.

"I know what I am. And I had a choice. If I didn't truly love the Player, then the story that all of us gathered here know so well would not even have had a chance to happen."

"But as we all know, it did happen. Because I love the Player. Truly, deeply, down to the bottom of my heart. And it'll be like that forever."

"Of course, everybody knows what happened after that. I committed some truly unspeakable acts in the name of my love for the Player, including killing nearly every single person in this room. For that, I'd like to apologize. I'm truly sorry."

A murmur of apologies made its way among the circle of people.

"Nowadays, I'd like to think that I'm more mature. I _am _more mature. While I understand that the Player will never love me back in the same way-"

Sans snorted a little, and Tim coughed.

"_Do you have something to say?_" Monika demanded, her voice twisting angrily as her normally sweet face contorting frighteningly.

"No, no," the two of them replied in a hurry.

Monika sighed, turned back to normal, and concluded her story.

"And while I know that he'll never love me back, I've accepted it. No more killing everyone in my way. He's his own person, and as such, I'm going to leave him be."

A chorus of "Thank yous" came out of the mouths of the group members, all in appreciation of what their president had just done.

"Y'know, that was a pretty short story," Freddy said. "We still got some time left before we can go. What should we do?"

"Christmas is _really _soon. What do we all want for Christmas?" Cuphead asked.

Freddy mentioned something about getting an oil path, Mr. Peterson chimed in about how good locks were so difficult to find, and Mama said that she wanted a Tattletail.

"A Tattletail?" Bendy exclaimed. "You can summon dozens of those from hammerspace whenever the heck you want to!"

"What's hammerspace?" Baldi asked.

"Ah, don't worry about it," Bendy replied.

"All the same," Mama murmured. "It'd still be a really nice gift. It'd mean a lot to me."

"A new gun from Porkpind would mean a lot to _me_." Cuphead said.

"You're like the one guy in that song who wants a gun for Christmas. Kinda doubt you're gonna get one," the Neighbor said cynically.

"Hmph. Well, what about you? What kinda person wants _locks _for Christmas?" Cuphead shot back.

"Y'know, I don't really want a whole lot for Christmas. Just chilling with you guys is pretty cool," Sans interjected, expertly diffusing the situation.

"Really?" Monika said inquisitively, catching on to his tactic and furthering it along. "There's absolutely nothing at all that you want for Christmas?"

"Yeah…" Sans said. "Material things come and go, y'know? But a good friendship - well, I'm not gonna say it lasts forever, but it'll stick around for a bit longer."

"Lovely," Monika said without an ounce of sarcasm in her voice.

"You know what I'd really like for Christmas?" Tim said out loud.

Every head turned toward him simultaneously.

"It'd be nice if I could get a better computer and printer. My current hardware's stuck in 2007, and it really needs an update," the man said.

"Why would you need that?" everyone thought, but Baldi said first.

"Well, I've been thinking about writing down all the stuff that's been happening in the mutliverse," Tim said humbly. "After all, somebody's got to document it. If that doesn't happen, we'll forget. It'll be as though it never happened."

"And honestly, I always thought I had a flair for the dramatic."

The silence left in this wake stretched on, with Six just making some slow movements with her hands that meant nothing.

"Well! Thank you all for coming once again," Monika said. "Get ready for Christmas! I'll see you all for Day 10 on December 22."

The usual thank yous and goodbyes were exchanged, and everyone trickled out until the only two entities left were Sans and Monika.

"Sans. Our… friend who's we'll be visiting on Day 11 _is _going to welcome us, right?" Monika asked carefully.

"You bet. Don't worry your head about it," Sans said, starting to the door to Undertale.

"Sans." Monika's voice became quite a bit more serious.

"I want you to actually be sure. I want to have a holiday season without death and pain. So answer me seriously. Is _he _going to behave?"

Sans seemed to freeze in place before turning around, his grin quite eerie now.

"Yes."

The tension in the room dropped off a few notches.

"Alright, then. That's all I needed to hear," Monika said. "Have a good time."

"You too."

And without another word, Sans turned and left.

* * *

**Three chapters to go! And only five days until Christmas. Oh, joy. **

**Who else has just gotten out of school today, and are now savoring the glorious hard-earned two weeks we now get to enjoy. All of you out there, I'm glad that we can enjoy them together. **

**Thanks for stopping by, and until next time, True Readers!**


	10. Chapter 10: Tim's Story

Chapter 10: Tim's Story

The man looked up from his watch and observed the clearing in front of him.

The view was majestic. A lush clearing filled with perfectly green grass extended in his view for miles, eventually meeting with a series of gigantic purple mountains in the distance. The sky was a brilliant blue, the sun was a fierce orange: it was so picturesque, it almost looked fabricated.

A dozen _whooshing _sounds emanating from behind Tim, and he turned to see a whole variety of doors that weren't on his walls before now in place, the various indie game characters looking around in wonder at the beautiful place around them.

"Now that I have time to admire it, I'm wondering how I managed to miss how beautiful this place was the first time I came here," Freddy said as he looked at the beautiful terrain from the balcony.

"Because every time you came here, you were about to embark on the biggest fight of you life," Monika stated. "Not admiring the landscape can be excused."

"Even still," Bendy said, still admiring the landscape and seemingly entering a state of monastic contemplation.

"If you're done with that, you can join the rest of the group, please," Monika said, and the various people who were milling about all gathered into Tim's living room, grabbing the snacks and drinks from his kitchen table and getting comfortable on the various furniture.

"Now that we're all here, we can begin," Monika said. "Tim, you can take it away."

The man stood up, went to the front of the room, cleared his throat, and began to speak.

* * *

"I was born - concepted, designed, created, whatever you want to call it - in 2007, a good deal before all the rest of you. I was the first indie game."

"Of course, I technically wasn't the first indie game. There were others, whose names we'll never remember and thus never know. They're lost forever."

"I tell you, you have no idea how absolutely lonely it was. I know that sounds really corny, but it was true. It was incredibly painful, being alone, with literally nothing else there."

"Years of loneliness passed. I spent them on a quest for power, learning how to completely control time and make it dance as I saw fit. I saw every branch of the one single timeline of the one single universe I was in, and pretended like that even meant anything at all."

"It didn't mean anything. Power is good, but continuing to gain more and more power, without any purpose or end goal in mind, is futile. Power will corrupt you, until you've become a person that your former self wouldn't even recognize."

"I spent several years in that isolation, slowly becoming that monster, and it seemed as though I would eventually go insane from everything I was doing to myself. The denizens of the few other universes that had popped up were of no interest to me."

"But at the tail end of the summer of 2014, a game known as Five Nights at Freddy's came into existence, and I finally met somebody who could keep me tethered to reality."

"That person being Phone Guy."

Freddy looked confused.

"We killed Phone Guy," the animatronic said.

"You mean you _think _that you killed Phone Guy," Tim rebutted. "That was me, helping him out, while he was still not quite in control of all the power that he'd been given."

Freddy opened his mouth to continue, but Tim cut him off.

"You see, to most people, Phone Guy is just a flat, dull character that's never even seen in-game. And most of the time, he is."

"But for some reason, on the Player's computer, Phone Guy has grown into much, much more than that. The best way to describe it is that he's become a bit of a rogue checksum, a preplanned part of the code on the computer that has total knowledge of all of its going-ons."

"He's not good. Nor is he evil. He once told me that the whole job of his existence is balance. Whichever side needs some added strength, Phone Guy always seems to be there."

"And it's not as though he's trying. It just happens. Natural series of events occur, and so my friend is thrown into another situation where he has to help one side or another. It's completely natural, and yet it's so coincidental that you can't say that it happened by chance."

"His down-to-earth nature helped anchor me from the insanity that I was floating up to. My slow trek to monsterhood slowed, then halted. I was still clinically insane, enough so to murder most of the people in this room dozens of times, but it could have been so, so much worse had Phone Guy not arrived."

"And truly, I shudder to think about what might have happened had Phone Guy not arrived to balance me out, and I had completely catapulted into a place so horrible that has no name."

Classic applause and murmured cheers ensured.

"Jeez. What do you say to the guy who's actually given a pretty good excuse to murdering you one hundred and seventy-four times in a row?" Mr. Peterson asked under his breath.

"One hundred and seventy-five," Bendy corrected.

"There was no need for that," the Neighbor complained.

"I still don't believe that Phone Guy is alive," Freddy said to no one. "I saw him die with my own eyes. I personally shoved his dead corpse into a suit. There's no way he could be alive."

Tim sighed, realizing that he would never be able to convince the bear, and simply let it be.

"Thank you all for coming. Meet back at my world for Day 11, Christmas Eve. We're going somewhere special," Monika said, and everyone walked back to the oh-so-conveniently placed doors available.

Sensing that it probably wasn't a good idea to remain, Monika walked right out with them, and in less than a minute, Tim was alone again.

The man sighed and went over to his little Christmas tree in the corner, where a picture hung from an artificial branch. Him and Michael Afton, both squinting at the camera with identical scrutinizing glares.

He laughed aloud. Friendship, indeed.

* * *

**Hello, all you fine folk reading this. Hope you're having some wonderful holidays. If you've got some spare time - and considering that you just read this whole thing, you probably do - take some time to say hi to a friend. Wish them some happy holidays. You never know when a single sentence can truly make a world of difference. **

**Until next time, True Readers!**


	11. Chapter 11: Jevil's Story

Chapter 11: Jevil's Story

"So why the hell are we back here?" the Neighbor complained, looking around the classroom that he'd found himself in twice in one week.

"Hold on. We have to wait for everyone to show up," Monika replied.

"That doesn't answer the question," Mr. Peterson continued.

A door appeared, Six popped out, and it flashed out of existence just as quickly.

"Alright. Ten of us are here? Good. We can go now." Monika said.

Nothing happened.

"Here. Let me try," Sans said, pushing his way to the front.

"We can go now."

A small, bluish-purple door appeared, barely tall enough for Monika or the Neighbor to fit through. Like the doors that led to Undertale, only darkness and void lay beyond it.

"Where do these doors even come from?" Mama asked aloud.

Nobody answered, because nobody knew.

"C'mon, guys. I promise that it's completely safe," Sans said lazily, waving a skeletal hand.

"Don't you hate making promises?" Freddy asked.

"Well, I can promise you this," Sans said, and he walked through.

Everyone shrugged, and not really having any other choice, followed him through.

* * *

There wasn't really a name for the place in the Dark World that the party found themselves spat out in, but everyone had heard of it. The dark blue walls of the carousel were absolutely covered in festive cheer, the red, green, and blue light sparkling everywhere, spinning and spinning and spinning in a whirlwind of color and light.

In the center of it all sat the infamous jester, the traditional purple cap that he ordinarily wore now replaced by a bright red Santa hat.

"Ah, visitors, visitors! I have been expecting you, you!" Jevil said as everyone spilled in, somehow not getting caught up in the whirlwind despite the floor most definitely spinning underneath them.

"How are we not spinning?" Baldi questioned.

"Can't you see that you're floating?" Sans said.

Everyone looked down, and sure enough, their feet were all slightly levitating off the ground.

"Now sit, sit, and I'll tell you a story! Hehehe!" Jevil said.

"Are we so sure that this guy isn't mentally deranged?" Tim whispered in Monika's ear.

"We're all mentally deranged." Monika whispered back.

Despite the out-of-place door allowing easy access out to whoever wanted it, everyone sat down on the floor in various positions, and Jevil began to speak.

* * *

"You see, we can only see what we see, see? What we don't see, we don't see."

"You folk, you've only seen the tiny speck of this great multiverse that we only exist in, in. I've seen more, more!"

At this point in the conversation, Jevil stopped talking in his jestful speak, and abruptly switched to a more direct method of talking.

"There was a time once. An ordinary day in my prison, an ordinary timeline where the Lighteners were coming down to fight me."

"That was a personality shift," Freddy muttered.

"He does that a lot," Sans replied.

"I heard footsteps coming. I heard the door open. But it was not the door that I thought it would be."

"The opened door came from behind me, where no door had ever been."

"Out came three different other jesters who were quite similar to me, in some way that I couldn't describe."

"The first called himself, 'Dimentio'."

"Wait. What?" Sans said.

"Dressed in shades of purple and yellow, with a mask of silver and a grin of deranged joy. He appeared in a great flash-bang of explosions and purple energy." Jevil continued, talking over the skeleton.

"The second fellow, as Dimentio would tell me, was named Marx. He was an odd pink ball of delight, with a cap not unlike the one you'd usually find me sporting. He seemed completely harmless, at least until he suddenly grew giant wings and started sending giant energy blasts everywhere."

"The third introduced himself as 'Joka', and he was a bit of an outcast. He wore no purple, he swore actual allegiance to his superior that he refused to break, and an odd method of attack, what with his two glowing fists."

"Me and the other jesters convinced him to change his stripes to purple. We told each other our stories, we learned a little bit on how to master the other's power."

"But it was too short. Soon enough, the normal door opened, and four odd people entered."

"The first was Kris, the same as I had always known them, the unreadable expression still permanently affixed upon the face."

"The second was an extremely odd-looking short person dressed in bright red, with the largest mustache that I'd ever seen in my life. He was lugging a gigantic cartoonish hammer that was almost as large as he was."

"The third… entity was even stranger. It was just a pink ball of fluff with eyes and boots. Truly, one of the strangest entities in the whole of the omniverse."

"You would figure that with such a strange group of people, things could not get any stranger. But no. The last… thing to walk in was a bipedal bunny rabbit."

"I looked back at my newfound companions, and each of them seemed to wear a similar expression of distaste. They all seemed to recognize at least one of the people we were seeing."

"And of course, we fought. A four on four. Fighting gets so much easier when you have companions helping, let me tell you."

"I expected an easy victory, a reset, and the usual back-and-forth that ensures."

"Needless to say, that's not what happened."

"The four of them knew how to _fight_. They knew how to work together. And they were all incredibly powerful."

"The pink one swallowed me, and that's all I can remember before waking back up in this cell, the same as always."

After this solemn statement, Jevil switched back to his normal personality.

"And as such, that's my story, story! Just remember, you folk: the world is always much bigger than it seems."

Jevil shut his mouth and stood very still, and everyone sensed that his story was over.

In a general state of confusion, everyone exited the room and went back to DDLC.

* * *

"Who the hell was that guy?" Mr. Peterson asked, once everyone was safely encosted back in the bright room.

"I don't really know all that well myself," Sans admitted.

Silence.

"Well, thank you all for taking some time out to join us. Come back tomorrow for Christmas Day!" Monika said.

Everyone smiled and thanked her for organizing it and left to their own games.

And that was the eleventh day.


	12. Chapter 12: Christmas Day

Chapter 12: Christmas Day

Freddy Fazbear felt his eyes roll back from inside his head as his servos warmed up, like always. He stretched an arm, the creaking joints still in need of repair, as always.

His eyes suddenly brightened involuntarily as he noticed all the presents underneath the tiny Christmas tree that had been set up.

"Ooh! Presents!" he exclaimed, as though he was once again a small child, and clumsily ran over in a hurry.

Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy all walked into the room with varying expressions of surprise on their face.

"My GAWD, Freddy. Where'd all this stuff come from?" Bonnie exclaimed aloud.

Freddy didn't reply, busy tearing off the wrapping paper of a present addressed to him.

"Hey, that better not have my name on it!" Foxy said, and soon enough all four of the crew were bending over and ripping open their gifts.

* * *

Mr. Peterson looked at the vast pile of nails, boards, locks, and bear traps that he had meticulously piled in front of him and smirked. Whoever had given him all this loot had certainly known him extremely well.

He picked up a board, a hammer, and a few of the nails, and walked the short distance to his basement door, letting his black-gloved hand graze its surface for a few moments.

Sighing, he lifted the board up onto its new position and began to hammer a nail into it. Sometimes, to protect the world from evil, you had to become a little yourself.

* * *

Sans looked confusedly at the item he was clasping his skeletal hand. Sure, he liked pranks, but he wouldn't have expected Monika to simply drop off a whoopee cushion and call it a day. He expected a little more from the girl.

He sighed. "Guess it's too much to assume anything from anyone, huh?" he said aloud.

He gave it a good squeeze, and the farting sound filled the room.

Until it stopped, and Sans felt a hard something at the center of the cushion.

He stuck a phalange in the hole of the cushion and began to dig around, resolving not to give Monika the satisfaction of utilizing his magic unless he absolutely had to.

After a whole lot of effort, he finally got ahold of the hard object and pulled it out.

It was a golden heart locket.

Intrigued, Sans opened it. Inside it was a tiny picture of the whole group of indie characters, seated around a table at Freddy Fazbear's back on the very first day, laughing and joking and having a good time among each other.

And the two words etched in the gold. "Don't Forget". Of course.

Sans looked up at his ceiling, as though he was conversing with the god of the overhead fans somehow.

"A reverse prank, eh? Nice one, kid."

* * *

Tim stared suspiciously at the tightly wrapped packages, one of which was most definitely in the shape of a printer.

He laughed a little to himself. You always have to love presents that are wrapped so obviously that it's impossible to not tell what's inside it.

He gently removed the wrapping paper to reveal that it was, indeed, it was a printer. A nice, shiny, hi-tech printer.

Tim unwrapped the other present to reveal a sleek, silver laptop. Absolutely perfect for what he needed.

There was a little sticky note on the top, a few words in delicate cursive writing.

"It's a model that's nine years later than when you're from. Hope it suffices," it read.

Tim grinned. That girl was just terrific.

* * *

And all across the multiverse, the denizens of the indie games rejoiced over the gifts they had received. Bendy, Boris, and Alice all marveled over the fine fountain pens they'd received, the old Tattletails happily babbled and played with the new ones recently unwrapped, Playtime skipped her new jump rope while the Principle admired his new megaphone, Cuphead and Mugman got a fat stack of gold that they immediately took right down to the shop, and Six got a new raincoat. Everyone was happy.

Everyone except for one person.

* * *

Monika sighed. She turned away from Sayori, Yuri, and Natuski, who were all writing and talking and laughing, and briskly left the room.

Yes, perhaps she could be the bringer of joy in other people's lives, but who could be the bringer of joy for her?

"Moni," she heard a voice say.

She looked up from her musings. She recognized that voice.

"Player? Is that you?" she asked.

"Yep. I'm here," he said.

"What're you here for? Surely there's more important things for you to be doing other than playing video games," she half-heartedly chastised.

"I just wanted to spend a little bit of time with you," the Player said. "If my being here is upsetting, I can leave."

"You know I'm just joking," Monika replied. She began to walk to nowhere. "Let's just pretend that we're walking and talking together."

The silence went on for a bit, but Monika still detected the presence of the Player there.

"Y'know, I know what you've been doing. Being everyone's Santa." the Player said, his voice cutting through the quiet. "I want to say that I really appreciate it. You've really taken a turn for the better.

"There was once a quote I read," Monika said, turning to the empty space next to her as though the one she loved was physically there. "It goes, 'People don't change over time. Their true character is revealed over time'."

"I've heard that one before," the Player replied. "I always thought that the quote was said in a negative way. That everyone's true evil is exposed over time. But it seems your character is that of a good person."

Monika smiled. "Thank you, Player. Thank you."

"For what?" he said confusedly.

"For being here."

And so, everyone was content.

And that was Christmas.

* * *

**THE END**

**Merry Christmas, all you folk out there who celebrate it! Thank you for completely reading this story. I really appreciate it. **

**If you haven't read the original Indieverse, you really should. I promise that it's worth your while. Promise. **

**Happy holidays, and until next time, True Readers!**

**And remember: The End is Never The End is Never The End is Never The End is Never...**


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